The subject matter herein relates generally to a cable connector grid frame for a cable backplane system.
Communication systems, such as network systems, servers, data centers, and the like, use large printed circuit boards, known as backplanes, to interconnect midplanes, daughtercards, line cards and/or switch cards. The communication systems use high speed differential connectors mounted to the backplane and high speed differential connectors mounted to the line cards and switch cards to transmit signals therebetween. The backplane interconnects the various connectors using traces along the circuit board.
As the density of the systems increase and requirements for high speed lines increase, the printed circuit boards continue to become larger and the signal integrity inherently degrades as the signals travel further along the entire channel. At least some systems have replaced the traditional backplanes with cable assemblies. The cable assemblies need to be held in predetermined locations for mating with line and switch cards. Packaging of such cable assemblies is difficult, particularly positioning in a condensed structure. Some systems use a cable tray to support the cable connectors and cables that is connected to a backplane board for mating with the line and switch cards. Having a large number of cable connectors that need to be stacked together in the cable tray leads to many assembly problems. For example, routing of the numerous cables is complex and difficult. Loading of individual cable connectors into the cable tray with the cables from other cable connectors blocking positioning of other cable connectors makes assembly difficult.
A need remains for a cable backplane system that may be assembled in an easy and timely manner.